Four Seasons

HAMPSTEAD -- Imagine playing golf without clubs, using a much bigger ball and, obviously, much bigger holes.You'll be able to do just that, possibly as soon as next spring, when the Four Seasons Sports Complex and Fitness Center opens a 20-acre, 18-hole soccer golf course. That's right, a soccer golf course.Soccer golf is basically the same as regular golf, minus the clubs and the small, dimpled balls. Instead, legs and feet are used along with soccer balls. The course will feature par-3 to par-5 holes.

The Four Seasons Food Truck Tour is coming to Baltimore. Designed as a showcase for its culinary programs and for the individual chefs at its hotel properties, the Four Seasons' mobile unit is pulling into Baltimore on Monday for a weeklong stay as part of an East Coast tour that began in Boston on Sept. 15. In Baltimore, the truck will feature "street food" creations from Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore chefs Oliver Beckert, the hotel's executive chef, Zack Mills, executive chef for the hotel's main restaurant Wit & Wisdom , and Dyan Ng, the hotel's pastry chef.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE Sun | July 29, 1999

Posterity hasn't always tipped its cap respectfully in the direction of Antonio Vivaldi, the facile composer of the baroque era whose many works won him acclaim at the Austrian imperial court and in his native Italy.The great Igor Stravinsky once dismissed Vivaldi as "a dull fellow who could compose the same form over and so many times over."Our baroque-smitten record-buying public has overruled Stravinsky's curmudgeonly verdict.None of Vivaldi's 700-plus compositions is better loved than his pictorial set of four concertos for solo violin and string orchestra, "The Four Seasons."

By Marie Marciano Gullard and For The Baltimore Sun | September 12, 2014

The story is a familiar one for many Maryland homeowners living along eastern Baltimore County's shoreline: The appeal, initially, is in having a summer vacation cottage. That is, until the inhabitants realize that with a bit of remodeling and updating, they can live in their dream home on the water all year long. This was the case for Bill and Jo Ann Loeliger and their three children, Erin, Kelsey and Burk. Their contemporary three-story home sits high on a bank off the south shore of the Middle River near Turkey Point - a setting quite different from that of their previous home in northern Baltimore County.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | July 29, 1999

Posterity hasn't always tipped its cap respectfully in the direction of Antonio Vivaldi, the facile composer of the baroque era whose many works won him acclaim at the Austrian imperial court and in his native Italy.The great Igor Stravinsky once dismissed Vivaldi as "a dull fellow who could compose the same form over and so many times over."Our baroque-smitten record-buying public has overruled Stravinsky's curmudgeonly verdict. None of Vivaldi's 700-plus compositions is better loved than his pictorial set of four concertos for solo violin and string orchestra, "The Four Seasons."

Zach Wendal, Andrew Benicewicz and Scott Bissett ventured into the unknown as freshmen, trying out for a Mount Hebron wrestling team that had won one match in the previous four seasons. And they didn't exactly take to the sport like ducks to water. "I had never tried wrestling, had no idea what it was," Bissett said. "I remember I couldn't even do a half-nelson. For about a month or two months, I was like, `How do you do this?' " Wendal didn't fare much better: "I wasn't good at sprawling or shooting takedowns.

NEW YORK -- The 33-foot high marble columns in the lobby look so monumental that you may think you've stepped into a museum. In a way, you have.New York's Four Seasons Hotel, located on one of midtown Manhattan's most fashionable shopping streets, built at a cost of $360 million, is gaining a certain landmark status as the latest example of a disappearing breed of grand hotels. "I've been told that something like this happens in New York every 50 years, and I tend to believe it," says hotel manager Thomas Gurtner.

An emergency blood drive was held Saturday at the Four Seasons Sports Complex to benefit soccer coach Abdellatif "Zak" Zakhnini, who has coached at Four Seasons, Carroll Indoor Sports and Hood College.Zakhnini has been in Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore since Feb. 1, when he was involved in an automobile accident. "He's well liked by everyone. A lot of people know Zak," said Lisa Shroers, a friend from Hampstead.Zakhnini's family lives in Morocco. A fund has been established at First National Bank of Maryland to help with his medical expenses.

The former beverage manager at the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore is suing the hotel's operator for wrongful or abusive discharge, harassment, gender discrimination and for creating a hostile work environment. In the suit, Tiffany Dawn Cianci claims she was harassed repeatedly by her superiors and ultimately terminated after refusing to sell alcohol that she believed was acquired outside of Maryland law. She also cites what the suit called “humiliating”...

Alex Smith has revealed the name of and the executive chef for his Japanese restaurant at the Four Seasons Baltimore Hotel. The new restaurant's name is Azumi, and the executive chef is Eiji Takase. Smith said that master sake sommelier Tiffany Dawn Soto will be assisting Azumi with its sake list and beverage program. Soto was the beverage director at Pabu, the original Japanese restaurant at the Four Seasons Baltimore. Developed for the hotel by the San Francisco-based Mina Group, Pabu, along with the coffee shop Lamill, closed in June. Both spaces are being re-developed and will be operated by Smith's Baltimore-based Atlas Restaurant Group, which currently operates the Harbor East restaurant Ouzo Bay. Azumi is set to open in November.

A lot can happen in the first three years of a restaurant's life. Things can go haywire. Investors panic, managers quit and staff moves on. But sometimes, not often enough, wisdom prevails. The restaurant considers what works, what doesn't. It reacts, but doesn't overreact, to diners' responses, and it changes things, thoughtfully, gradually, confidently. If you believe in the capacity for change, head down to Wit & Wisdom, the principal restaurant at the Four Seasons Baltimore Hotel.

Lamill, the coffee shop at the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore, which was to close on Saturday and reopen on Monday with a new name, will instead stay closed for months. The space will reopen later this summer as a full-service bar and restaurant, according to Alex Smith, whose newly formed Atlas Restaurant Group is taking over the Lamill space at the hotel and another that currently operates as Pabu. Smith said he will reveal plans for the new space, and its new name, soon. Smith said his plans for Pabu have not changed.

Pabu is shutting down this weekend, but a new Japanese restaurant will be taking its place, according to operators. The small-plate format will be gone, replaced by a more traditional fine-dining concept. "Our number one priority is taking care of our locals," said Alex Smith, whose Atlas Restaurant Group is taking over the spaces currently operating as Pabu and Lamill in The Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore. "[Pabu] never did a great job of attracting the local crowd," he said. Smith, who owns Ouzo Bay, an upscale Greek restaurant in Harbor East, said that several Ouzo Bay customers who had seen news coverage of the Pabu closing told him they had never heard of Pabu.

The Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore will overhaul two of its restaurants this summer. The hotel will replace Pabu, its Japanese restaurant, and Lamill, its coffee shop, with new restaurants run by the Alex Smith and George Aligeorgas, principals in the Atlas Restaurant Group, which operates the Harbor East restaurant Ouzo Bay. Smith is the grandson of developer John S. Paterakis, who owns the hotel through Harbor East Development Group, a subsidiary...

CHRISTIAN 'HITSCH' ALBIN, 61 Four Seasons executive chef Christian "Hitsch" Albin, who fed the world's luminaries for decades as executive chef of The Four Seasons - a restaurant that invented the "power lunch" - has died. He was 61. Albin died at New York University Medical Center on Saturday, five days after being diagnosed with cancer, the restaurant's owners said in a statement. The Swiss-born chef's hearty laughter filled the ritzy Manhattan restaurant's kitchen for 36 years, serving guests who included Jacqueline Onassis, Elton John, President Bill Clinton, Princess Diana and Martha Stewart.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan women's basketball coach Cheryl Burnett retired yesterday, ending a lackluster stint with the Wolverines after helping Southwest Missouri State become a power. Burnett was 35-83 overall and 10-54 in the Big Ten over four seasons at Michigan. The Wolverines were 10-20 overall and 3-13 in the conference last season, finishing 10th. Michigan's best year under Burnett was its first, when the team was 14-17 during the 2003-04 season. She was 319-136 and coached in 10 NCAA tournaments before she was hired at Michigan.

The developer of Harbor East has dipped its toes back into Baltimore's tenuous condominium market, presenting the city with new plans for long-stalled luxury residences atop the Four Seasons Hotel. The design calls for 63 condominiums instead of the roughly 150 initially envisioned in a project that the developer said still could be scrapped. The uncertainty highlights Baltimore's tentative condo market. While sales numbers and prices suggest that the market is rebounding, condos remain an uncommon, often premium product in Baltimore, and many developers remain unconvinced that there is sufficient demand.

UPDATE (5:15 p.m. Thursday): Kevin Gausman was scratched from his start for Triple-A Norfolk on Thursday in case the Orioles need him for a potential doubleheader in Detroit this weekend. Right-hander Eddie Gamboa will start in his place. ORIGINAL POST Two of the Orioles' top three pitching prospects will make their 2014 season debut tonight as the organization's four full-season minor league affiliates play their first games. Right-hander Kevin Gausman -- the second-best prospect in the organization, according to Baseball America -- will start for Triple-A Norfolk in the 7:05 p.m. game at Harbor Park against Charlotte, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez -- No. 3 on Baseball America's list of top Orioles prospects -- will pitch for Double-A Bowie in the 6:35 p.m. game at Prince George's Stadium against Harrisburg, an affiliate of the Washington Nationals.